Which is more useful / powerful in this game? Is it worthwhile to perk both?

Atronach fan here. You don't need a dead body to use them... that's pretty much the gist of it.

It can be argued that Dead thralls are the most powerful summons you can get, because you can kit them out with improved weapons and armor, and it's hard to deny this fact.

HOWEVER

You might as well just get a follower and do even better with customization as far as that goes. Having followers can be a royal pain as they tend to get in your way and get lost. Atronachs don't last overly long, even with player perks, so exploring a cave will not be annoying. Plus, you can target atronachs to spawn between you and the enemies before they spot you, which pretty much guarantees that the bad guys will key in on your beastie instead of you... which is really, really helpful when you are playing a bodily fragile mage character, for instance. Even moreso for archer types...

-Loth

How do I get Dremora Lords? I messed around with a mage character a bit before, but all I got was a flame atronach. Do I have to be a higher level?

I have to agree, atronachs are far better than undead. With undead you need a body which means you need to kill an enemy before you can raise one, they also take time to raise.

You have to hit the right level before you can get the higher level spells i.e. you will need a rank of 50 in conjuration before they will sell you Frost Atronach.

I think you can be a little less than 50 for a frost atronach book to appear in selling lists... the same for dremoras and the storm atronachs -- a little lower than Conjuration 75.
-Loth

Edit: also, you can get atronach books at any level whatsoever by making them with the atronach forge.

Technically necromancer is better because you can equip your thralls with amazing gear, but I like atronachs because it's much less of a hassle and not nearly as buggy.

"Conjurer" is too mainstream?

I have characters with each, they are both good for the reasons above. But I think you kind of need an RP reason to use zombies. Probably atronachs are better at lower levels.

They are a very high lvl summon.

I prefer atronachs.

I go atronach because I never have to buy the spells you can make spell books for each one in the atronach forge.

Saying that a dead thrall lasts longer is a moot point, when comapred to the atronach versions (flame thrall), for these are also sooped up lasting forever spells.

Although that gets annoying when you want to walk around town!

I personal prefer dremora, pretty darn kickass! Question I have is, on one occasion, I managed to summon the mage version of them, but never sicne (always had the 2H sword versions) was this a bug on my part, or am i missing somthing?

I think that from a gameplay point of view, Atromancy is more feasible, primarily for the reasons listed by those who posted earlier. No bodies aare required to summon atronachs, and once you summon them, they are good to go, whereas dead bodies need to take a moment to right themselves then go into a combat state. My only beef is that there isn't a Dremora Thrall spell (I would nerdgasm over that if they put that into the game), and while you can conjure Dremora Lords, it's only for 60 seconds (base time).

From a roleplaying POV, it depends on what you want your character to be. Do you want him/her to be more of a Necromancer, profaning the bodies of your fallen enemies with cruel disdain, callously violating their right to peace that they have earned in death? Do you want your character to be a sorceror who trafficks with daedra, making arcane pacts with daedra and atronachs to bring them into Mundus to defend you and annihilate your enemies? Or do you want to be a true master conjurer, able and willing to defy death and the barriers protecting us from the unknowable denizens of the realms of Oblivion in order to have arcane servants at hand to crush and demoralize your foes? If you're curious as to what path to choose simply from an RP point of view, then answering those questions should help you chose.

I had a character that had both, and it was fun to use them interchangeably. I would summon an atronach or dremora lord, it would create bodies, and I would summon a body (using the perk that lets you have 2 summoned entities at once), and around the time the dremora lord vanished, the zombie would jump in the fray, and I would summon an atronach. The cycle just kept going until combat was over. Also, I really like having dead thralls, both from an RP point of view and a gameplay point of view. I could find a powerful opponent, slay him/her finally, and if they were tough enough, I'd resurrect them until I didn't need them anymore or until I came across a tougher foe that I could use. And I always liked resurrecting dead enemies as thralls; it was kind of a perverse way of respecting them. They were worthy opponents in life, so I would honor them in their death by allowing them to serve and protect their better. }:-)

If I need a strong temporary summon, Dremora Lords are better then Atronachs. If I want a strong long term summon I can manuveer around my dead thralls the same can't be said of Ice or Storm Atronachs. I've also had Dead Thralls that would summon Atronachs.

And well Dead Thralls can be bugged so they get lost the Elemental Potency perk is bugged and disables the use of several staves including the sanguine rose which summon leveled Dremora. At high levels it can summon Dremora even more powerful then the conjure dremora lord spell.

I prefer the Atronachs and the Dremora Lords. I like that I can just summon them without the need for corpses but the undead thralls can be very powerful depending on what the foe you raised has equipped, and his level. I either choose one side or the other of the perk tree I have not chose both yet.

Atronachs are easier to use, but necromancy is more powerful and rewarding.

well atronachs are quicker to summon but undead can be equipped with weapons and armor and if you have the ritual stone power and enough humanoid corpses you can raise an entire custom equipped army against your foes.

Go see Phinis (sp??) in the mages college. You have to do a quest for him, then at the end you get the quest. Great melee dps.

The Ritual Stone helped me out in a few spots, but overall its not too reliable. Doesnt the reanimated only last 60 secs? I use it as a gimmicky way to kill off bosses like Vals Veran, but when i needed it sometimes there was no bodies in sight, or a strong bandit chief cut me down before they attacked him

Atromancy is much easier to play. You can cast your summons far ahead and never worry about enemies targeting you. A low level Mage should always go for it first.

Necromancy is for the true minion master to get an army of 6 or more allies on screen at one time. Dead Thralls will use Atronach staves which you give them. Two forsworn ravager equipped with legendary enchanted forsworn swords can take down an ancient dragon by themselves within a single dragonrend. (barring bad terrain or AI pathing)

thats why you need to prepare the area before you use it drag any nearby corpses into a pile making sure you are well away from hostile eyesight the strength of the corpses is irrellevent skeevers skeletons dead bandits and animals vanquished beforehand by your spells corpses that may have been there to begin with and when you have a satisfactory number assembled and have reequipped any you believe will be useful stand near the pile but not so close that you will be surrounded when they are resurrected and enjoy your 60 second army

I have problems with both but basically low-mid level atronachs and high level necromancy mostly due to dead thrall my only problem is that you can't dead thrall over lvl 40 that REALLY ANNOYS me but you can have dead thralls then enchant their gear I have a dead thrall that can 3 hit dragon priests with their spells and another that can tank almost anything and does amazing damage

It's not that many more perks to do both. Necromancy is more fun, but it can be a pain too.

i will give atromancy one good thing tho summoning 2 frost atroncachs and watching them bludgeon and stab a large group of mages and there summoned creatures is one of the most satisfying sights in the game.